The Avery Coonley House, also known as the Coonley House or Coonley Estate was designed by
architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...
. Constructed 1908–12, this is a residential estate of several buildings built on the banks of the
Des Plaines River
The Des Plaines River () is a river that flows southward for U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed May 13, 2011 through southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois''American Her ...
in
Riverside, Illinois
Riverside is a suburban village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. A significant portion of the village is in the Riverside Historic District (Riverside, Illinois), Riverside Landscape Architecture District, designated a National Historic La ...
, a suburb of
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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. It is itself a
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
and is included in another National Historic Landmark, the
Riverside Historic District.
History
The Avery Coonley House (built 1908–12) in Riverside, Illinois, is located on a unique small peninsula surrounded by the Des Plaines River. Of the few estates that
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...
developed, it is one of his largest and most elaborate
Prairie School
Prairie School is a late 19th- and early 20th-century architectural style, most common in the Midwestern United States. The style is usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped in ...
-homes ever built. It is one of just three multi-building prairie complexes built by the famed architect. The other two are the
Dana–Thomas House
The Dana–Thomas House (also known as the Susan Lawrence Dana House and Dana House) is a home in Prairie School style designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Built 1902–04 for patron Susan Lawrence Dana, it is located along East Lawrence ...
and the
Darwin D. Martin House
The Darwin D. Martin House Complex is a historic house museum in Buffalo, New York. The property's buildings were designed by renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright and built between 1903 and 1905. The house is considered to be one of the most imp ...
complexes. The Coonley house is also the first example in Wright's work of a zoned plan. The raised second floor includes three zones: The public area (living room and dining room), the bedroom wing (with its pendant guest wing) and finally the kitchen and servants areas. The original residence was over-9000-square-feet and built on a ten-acre parcel. The entrance halls, playroom and sewing room are on the ground floor. An entire complex of interrelated buildings with extensive raised and sunken gardens was designed by landscape architect
Jens Jensen Jens Jensen may refer to:
* Jens Jensen (footballer) (1890–1957), Danish football (soccer) player who played one game for the Denmark national football team
* Jens Jensen (landscape architect) (1860–1951), Danish-born landscape architect in Chic ...
. The main structure of the Avery Coonley Estate is the public-living room wing, located on Bloomingbank Road and behind that facing Scottswood Road is the bedroom wing of the mansion. The complex also includes a separate stable-coach house and gardener's cottage (1911). Along with the
Robie House
The Frederick C. Robie House is a U.S. National Historic Landmark now on the campus of the University of Chicago in the South Side neighborhood of Hyde Park in Chicago, Illinois. Built between 1909 and 1910, the building was designed as a singl ...
, the Coonley Estate represents the maturation of Wright's Prairie Style, typified by wide overhanging eaves, bands of art glass casement windows, free-flowing interior spaces and the harmonious blending of site and structure.
Avery Coonley, a Chicago industrialist and his wife, Queene Ferry of the Detroit-based
Ferry Seed Company, were both heirs to industrial fortunes and had an unlimited budget to commission a new residence. The Coonleys had investigated Wright's other homes and told him that they saw in his work "the countenances of principle".
[''Frank Lloyd Wright: Collected Writings, 1930-32, volume 2.'' Edited by Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, introduction by Kenneth Frampton (Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., New York City, 1992), p. 218.] Wright stated in his autobiography that "This was to me a great and sincere compliment. So I put my best into the Coonley House."
Wright considered the Coonley House among his finest works and gave the Coonleys a residence that blended indoors and out and felt as much like a little village as a home, given the way the courtyards, buildings, and garden walls interconnected. He designed all the features and furnishings within the home, including rugs and textiles. The designs of the Coonley House were included in his 1907 exhibition at the Chicago Architectural Club. Construction began a year later.
A philanthropic couple, The Coonleys had progressive beliefs which included early education for children. At the age of four years, their only daughter Elizabeth was too young to attend the local school. To educate her child and others, Queene Ferry requested that Wright design a kindergarten, the
Avery Coonley School Playhouse, in 1912 on nearby Fairbank Road, a block away from the main residence. The art glass windows of the Coonley Playhouse feature one of Frank Lloyd Wright's best known designs. A pattern based on balloons, confetti and American flags, very festive for the intended use of the structure, the design used in these windows was artistically striking and represents Wright's first departure from his signature style using only straight lines. Except for a few relatively plain panes, the windows of the Coonley Playhouse are now all replicas, the originals having been removed in the middle of the 20th century at a time when Wright's work was either being saved or dissected and sold for large sums of money. Many of the originals can be seen in museums such as the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
in New York and The
Art Institute of Chicago
The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...
which prominently displays one of the windows near its main entrance. The colored side of the art glass windows faced the inside of the house, while the side that faces exterior is white. The kindergarten school moved from the Coonley Playhouse in Riverside to a larger facility in Downers Grove in 1916 and eventually became a full K-8 elementary school and still exists today. The original Coonley Playhouse near the estate in Riverside is currently a private residence.
Alterations to the Coonley Estate have been made through the years, by Wright and others. A year after the house was completed, Wright modified the terrace pavilion, adding bands of art glass doors and windows to allow more light into the second-floor living room and children's playroom below. A pergola with noticeable Asian influences was also added. Avery Coonley sold the house in 1921 to Peter Kroehler, a furniture manufacturer from Naperville, Illinois. Several architectural changes were made during this period including a sun-room addition to the south, the lily pond was converted into a swimming pool and a pool house was added - probably designed by Harry Robinson, an apprentice under Wright at both Oak Park and
Taliesin
Taliesin ( , ; 6th century AD) was an early Brittonic poet of Sub-Roman Britain whose work has possibly survived in a Middle Welsh manuscript, the '' Book of Taliesin''. Taliesin was a renowned bard who is believed to have sung at the courts ...
.
In 1952 the property was threatened with demolition to make way for 14 ranch homes. A compromise was reached that allowed developer Arnold Skow to divide the main house into north and south halves by inserting a firewall, build five new houses on the property and convert the gardener's cottage and stable into separate residences and addresses. The raised gardens were sold off and a modern house was built on the property. Even with these radical changes, the house retains nearly all of its original exterior and interior design details, including approximately 270 original art glass windows and doors.
A heater for the swimming pool exploded on June 11, 1978, setting a fire that destroyed the living room of the main house and one of the bedrooms. In 2000 salvage and restoration work was performed on light screens and
millwork
Millwork is historically any Sawmill, wood mill produced decorative materials used in Construction#Building construction, building construction. Stock profiled and patterned millwork building components fabricated by Milling (machining), millin ...
on the north half of the house including stucco and roof repair, restoration of the original gravel driveway and the reconversion of the swimming pool back to the original lily pond. The entire north side of the house has been meticulously restored to its original splendor including the re-creation of the
George Mann Niedecken
George Mann Niedecken (August 16, 1878 – November 3, 1945) was an American prairie style furniture designer and interior architect from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He is best known for his collaboration with the architect Frank Lloyd Wright. He als ...
living room mural as well as the decorative tulip designed tile frieze along with many light screens that surround the perimeter of the house.
During his lifetime, Frank Lloyd Wright built approximately 532 homes, museums, and office buildings. Many have been demolished, but more than 400 Wright-designed buildings still stand. Of the
approximately 2,500 NHLs in the United States, twenty-eight were designed by Wright. Included is The Avery Coonley House which is the largest privately owned Frank Lloyd Wright residence to be recognized by the
United States Secretary of the Interior
The United States secretary of the interior is the head of the United States Department of the Interior. The secretary and the Department of the Interior are responsible for the management and conservation of most federal land along with natural ...
. It was declared a
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
in 1970.
[. ]
The village of Riverside, founded in 1869 as the nation's first planned community, was designed by landscape architect
Frederick Law Olmsted
Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822August 28, 1903) was an American landscape architect, journalist, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the USA. Olmsted was famous for co- ...
– designer of both
Central Park
Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West Side, Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the List of New York City parks, fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban par ...
in New York City and Jackson Park (fairgrounds of the Chicago Columbian Exposition of 1893). The streets of Riverside wind and crisscross, forming small islands of houses and green space; quite a contrast to the strict grid of nearby Chicago.
See also
*
The Avery Coonley School
The Avery Coonley School (ACS), commonly called Avery Coonley, is an independent, coeducational day school serving academically gifted students in preschool through eighth grade (approximately ages 3 to 14), and is located in Downers Grove, DuPage ...
*
List of National Historic Landmarks in Illinois
There are 88 National Historic Landmarks in Illinois, including Eads Bridge, which spans into Missouri and which the National Park Service credits to Missouri's National Historic Landmark list. Also included are two sites that were once National ...
*
References
* Storrer, William Allin. ''The Frank Lloyd Wright Companion''. University Of Chicago Press, 2006, (S.135)
External links
Facebook: Coonley House Bedroom WingA site about The Coonley HouseA site about the Coonley PlayhouseAvery Coonley School, located in Downers Grove, IL founded by the Coonleys
{{Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright buildings
Houses completed in 1912
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Cook County, Illinois
National Historic Landmarks in Illinois
Riverside, Illinois
1912 establishments in Illinois
Historic district contributing properties in Illinois